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My soul has not been pierced with the sword of barrenness. I cannot and will not pretend to understand that pain. The sword that pierces my own soul goes by a different name. Nonetheless, fruitful or barren, young or old, sensible or ridiculous, every woman knows pain. We’re designed for it, and our personalities grow out of it. In He Remembers the Barren, Mrs. Schuermann calls a blade a blade. How refreshing to find a Christian author who knows a cross when she sees it, and who knows the only responsible thing to do with a cross is to carry it.

And, behold how pleasant it is when sisters dwell together in unity. Mrs. Schuermann writes, “No one really wants to know what it is like to be barren.” Of course, she is right. But I am humbled by knowing and honored to know what it is like for her to be barren. I am blessed to meet, via this book, sister after sister who is intimate with the pain of barrenness. I am glad to be made to understand the smallest fraction of their suffering, that I might better love them as women carrying the crosses God has given them in faith, in dignity, and in hope.

Also, while I am not barren, I found balm to a pain I bear in my heart in Chapter Fourteen, “What if God says No?” As I near the end of my fertility, I find myself begging God to give me even one more child. Seven living children fill my house, and still my heart aches for another. I see younger women, those sensible creatures, tie up their packages in tidy knots and retire themselves early from their childbearing years. I hear elder women, honestly sensible, encourage a gentle going into the good night of age-induced infertility. But I lack sense. Ridiculous, laughable, foolish, I cannot stop praying and hoping as I ever did, and dreading the day when I know for certain that I have died to childbearing forever.

To me, Mrs. Schuermann writes, “As we learn from our brother Job, Satan can only deliver punches…that God allows. And though Satan means it for evil, God means it all for our good. Does this comfort you? It comforts me….I may be slogging through the valley of the shadow of death, but I will fear no evil for the Good Shepherd is with me.” Amen. And thanks be to God for beholding us and giving us to one other, a rich consolation under the crosses we carry as we wait His return in glory.

“Children are a heritage from Him, a gift, a reward, a blessing, a fruit. That is the language that He uses….We recognize things that are gifts from the Lord: food, family, shoes, house, home, our neighbors. Well, children are another one of those gifts — even when we don’t want them, even when we don’t appreciate them. I think, in the Church, we have abandoned this use of gift language at some point. And that makes it difficult to talk about barrenness. Because if we don’t recognize the Source of life, then we have a hard time talking to people who are not being given that gift of life. We have faulty language that fails to deliver comfort. It fails to deliver truth, and it definitely fails to deliver babies…The language we’ve been given as a culture is not right. It’s not going to speak the Gospel to the barren.”

-Listen to the full interview with author Katie Schuermann on KFUO Faith & Family, where she discusses adoption, the cross of barrenness, and our identity in Christ

Author Katie Schuermann tells how the cross of barrenness affects her and her husband, how others react to their childlessness, our culture’s misguided understanding of adoption, the god of fertility science, and how God uses crosses to strengthen faith and trust in Him.

Listen to her thought-provoking interview on Issues, Etc., recorded on June 6, 2017. Find more details about the second edition of He Remembers the Barrenhere.

“What began on that first Pentecost is still ongoing and endures until the end. The same breath of eternal love from heaven still blows, even if not accompanied by visible signs. The tongues that set the world aflame still burn, even if not in visible tongues of fire. We hear the mighty deeds of God praised in every language. The word of the apostles is alive in every nation. The multitude of those who hear, the number of the faithful grows and increases.

“No one can hinder this work, nor will it ever cease. The Holy Spirit continues the inexorable work of building the temple of the Father and the Son. It is always Pentecost.”

-Wilhelm Löhe in The WordRemains: Selected Writings on the Church Year and the Christian Life

The revised and expanded second edition of He Remembers the Barren by Katie Schuermann is now available for shipment! Find details on purchasing, our bulk discount, how to get a giclee print, excerpts, and reviews here.

“Rarely have I met a woman so eloquently able to describe the valley of the shadow of death with such honesty. Even rarer to find someone who can thus acknowledge that even there, ‘Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.’ Having traveled that valley, those of us who ‘mourn in Israel’ are deeply moved and also comforted by Katie’s stubborn faithfulness, which turns our hearts and minds not only to the reality of the cross, but also to the greater reality of God’s unfailing love, which made that cross necessary. Katie reminds us again and again that Christ will give us ‘beauty for ashes, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness…’ This book is a must read for those of us who need to know that there are fellow travelers who will rejoice as we will to be where there is ‘no more crying or pain or sickness or death anymore.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”
-Dr. Donna Harrison, MD, OB/GYN; LCMS member

“In He Remembers the Barren, Katie Schuermann comes alongside barren couples on their lonely way through their specific challenges and crosses, including the plethora of ‘solutions’ that often turn out not to be, the pressures that come with them, and the ‘people problems’ those pressures aggravate. In the end it is both a vividly personal and theologically reflective study in the cruciform life, lived in faith in Christ and in that love that sees what is not and brings good out of it. For couples struggling with barrenness, those struggling to know how to support them, and those who just want to grasp in a real way how the body of Christ — in suffering together, in believing together — is built up together in that hope that will not fail, Katie proves, especially in this new edition, to be a faithful, forthright, and full-hearted companion.”
-Rev. Dr. John and Heidi Sias

“First published in 2011 and now out in an expanded second edition, Katie Schuermann’s He Remembers the Barren remains a powerful testimony marked to the author’s continuing struggle with barrenness, held within the firm confidence that all of life is to be received as a gift from the hand of a faithful Creator. Rich with insights from the Holy Scriptures, Katie Schuermann gives voice to lament while remaining full of the hope which does not disappoint. The second edition carries with it the added bonus of reflections on medical ethics, giving thoughtful acknowledgement that while medical technology is a gift, it never is to become a substitute lord for the Christian. This is a book worthy of reading not only by women who have not been given the gift of children but also for pastors and Christian friends who care for them.”

John T. Pless
Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Mission/Director of Field Education
Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN

Dr. Beverly Yahnke, executive co-director of Doxology, regarding Katie Schuermann’s work and writing on barrenness: “I believe that she has done some important work to facilitate a conversation which is too often whispered with guilt and shame and too rarely explored with Christian confidence and common sense.”

Get the book and join the conversation to support our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering under the cross of barrenness.